10 WAYS TO STIMULATE CREATIVE THINKING (II)

9.12.14

Last week, I shared six tips and tricks to stimulate creative thinking. As this was clearly one of my most read articles recently, and as I really enjoyed writing it, I thought I would share four more tips to complete the list to ten. Those four are more focussed on letting creative thinking help you reach your goals. Ready? Here we go!

DEFINE YOUR UNIQUE TALENT AND MOTIVATION

We would all like to be a rockstar or have another flashy job. Creativity is not bound to those kind of creative jobs though. Creativity is important in most situations. And let's be honest, if we all try to become a guitar hero, most of us will probably fail in doing so. That is why it is important to define your unique talent: the thing that you are better at than others. For example, I feel like am good at analyzing social trends and connecting people. So I stay focussed on writing and show people what is happening in today's world and try to be creative in that sense. What is your unique talent that could benefit from creative thinking?

BE FEARLESS, GO FOR IT!

Once you have defined what you want to do in life, there is no escaping finding creative solutions to make your dreams happen. Creativity thrives on courage, which means that you have to trust yourself, your thoughts and your talents. Even if they seem strange to others. Always remember that kids do not let the fear of rejection or possible problems for implementation hold them back. Although those fears and problems might be real, they can also prohibit reaching an idea's full potential. Remind yourself that ambition is often the same as being able to do it. This actually is the point that I always thought I lived up to, but now understand that I do not fully. I am used to working like a maniac, but still fear rejection sometimes. That means that I spread my chances and have a whole lot of projects going on, besides my full time job, that reached about 80 percent of their potential. I decided to focus recently and go for what I love: managing my own magazine on the web. Okay..and organizing exhibitions for young and talented artists.BRAINSTORM WITH COLLEAGUES OR FRIENDSI started planning brainstorming sessions recently, in order to find out ideas that could benefit my project. This might seem like an obvious action, but actually most of us forget to share their work with others. Including me. I realized that I have been working on JadePillar for about two years now and only scarcely engaged others in its production: totally missing out on great ideas from others as a result.You can implement brainstorming sessions both at work and - if it is a side project you are working on - with your friends. You will see that involving others in your thought process, will help you discover new possibilities and clarify the actions that need to be taken in order to reach your goals. Great thing is that brainstorming is a pretty fun activity. Make sure you know what you want to talk about and create a setting in which everyone feels free to suggest ideas. Especially those that are surprising and innovative. TAKE NOTES!I often forget most of the ideas I have during the week. I now write them down in a little log file on my laptop. Sometimes I remind myself to look at them and see if they fit something I am working on. That means I write down ideas for articles, people I would like to speak to, etc. Reading your notes also makes you aware of your creativity and thoughts, something that is great to remind yourself of sometimes. ;-)Feel free to share your tips to stimulate creative thinking. I am curious!-xoxo-JPFollow me on Facebook!